


White Shadows

by LabyrinthineNyx



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gore, Hurt/Comfort, Rescue, Save Me, Sorry guys, Strength, Torture, Violence, Will get bloody, spear of destiny, trigger warning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2018-03-09
Packaged: 2018-12-03 06:30:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 20,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11526492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LabyrinthineNyx/pseuds/LabyrinthineNyx
Summary: Damien Darhk hates Sara Lance. He wants nothing more than to see her suffer by his hands.  When he is tasked with gathering information on the Spear of Destiny by the notorious Eobard Thawne, he finds his opportunity. How long will she be able to hang on? Will the Legends rescue her in time?





	1. Chapter 1

The Legends had just finished their latest mission in the 2006 era and were reporting back to the time ship. Damien Darhk had been there and wouldn’t stop taunting her which left Sara Lance in a bad mood. When she had learned that he was responsible for her sister Laurels death a few months back, she immediately wanted revenge but she couldn’t get close enough tonight. She followed behind the group, bringing up the rear. Everyone left her alone, they knew that she had wanted revenge but killing Darhk was not the way to go.

Leonard Snart and Mick Rory were in the lead with Ray Palmer behind them talking with Dr. Martin Stein and Amaya Jiwe. Jefferson ‘Jax’ Jackson was right in front of Sara and he looked like he was about to try and ‘comfort’ Sara. When she picked up on this, her mood turned annoyed.

“I’ll meet you guys back at the ship,” she said turning around. “I need a drink.”

“Oh, that sounds like a good plan, ill join you,” Mick said, never missing a moment when he could drink. He was stopped when Snart grabbed the man’s arm to hold him back.

“Mick, I think she wants to be alone, we can grab a cold one once we get back to the ship.” Mick glared at his best friend before deciding that he was right.

Dr. Stein didn’t want Sara to be alone and suggested she come back with them to which she declined.

“I’ll be back in an hour tops, tell Rip ill play nice with the townsfolk.” She rolled her eyes when she mentioned Rip. She knew he would lecture her once she got back but with the way she was feeling at the moment, she didn’t care.

Ray pulled Jax along with the rest of the group after telling Sara to keep her comm’s on.

Once alone, Sara turned away from the direction her team went and headed to the bar they had seen on their way there. She needed a couple of shots to drown out her anger towards her sister’s killer. Walking into the bar, she didn’t care about the stares she got, still in her White Canary outfit. She downed only two vodka shots before she was joined by a handsome stranger.

He offered to buy her a drink but she declined. “No thanks, I’m not looking to mingle tonight.”

“Come on, vodka shots by yourself is never fun, let me at least buy you another round.” The man kept annoying her and it was taking everything she had not to put him on his ass. Instead of answering him, she ordered herself another shot and then turned to him as the bartender poured it.

“What part of ‘no’ do you not understand?” She then turned back to the bartender and was handed the shot. She downed it in one gulp and then got up to leave, but she wasn’t alone.

“Can I at least have your name?” the man asked as he followed her outside into the cool night air.

“No you may not,” she said as she stumbled a bit.

“Do you need a ride home? You look pretty hammered.”

“I am not hammered,” she said as her head began to pound. “It takes a lot for me to get drunk.” Why wouldn’t this guy leave her alone? She wasn’t feeling so good and she didn’t want to lose her stomach in front of this loser. As sweat began to form on her forehead, the world began to spin. “What the hell?” she stated under her breath as she tried to regain her balance; something wasn’t right here.

“I have to go,” she said as she pushed him away and tried to take a step. She failed and stumbled to the ground. The man leaned over her and laughed to himself as she tried to get up, but her arms and legs just didn’t want to listen anymore.

“You were so worried about not taking a drink from me that you didn’t notice the bartender slip something in your shot.” The world spun as he scooped her up and threw her over his shoulder. “Mr. Darhk would like to see you now.”

Horror overcame Sara when she realized what had happened. This guy and the supposed bartender worked for Darhk and he now had her captive. She could only imagine what kind of hell was waiting for her.

Back at the ship, a few hours had passed and Rip was even more upset with Sara. They were all ready to jump through time to 1903 but they couldn’t without Sara.

“Rip, she said she would only be an hour, something has to be wrong,” Jax said as he tried the comm’s again. “She still isn’t answering.”

“I assure you she is fine Mr. Jackson, she’s probably getting drunk with a bunch of losers and overconfident excuses for men right now.”

Jax as well as Ray didn’t believe Rip. “Rip, Jax can’t get her on the comm’s,” Ray said with the same worried expression as Jax.”

“Yes Mr. Palmer I heard him the first time, she’s probably turned them off to drown out your excessive worrying.”

Jax was about to retort when Snart and Mick returned from looking for their missing teammate. “She wasn’t at any of the bars we passed, but one said they saw a ‘hot chick in a white outfit,’ leave with a guy behind her.” Snart air quoted the witnesses statement, though he agreed with the outfit part.

“We stole the video footage too,” Mick said as he pulled the tape from his pocket, to which a few wallets fell out.

“You stole some wallets as well I presume,” Rip said as he snatched the tape from Mick’s hand. He put it into the ships center console and the team gathered around. It was footage from outside of the bar and they forwarded it through until they spotted Sara leaving with a stranger right behind her.

It was clear that she didn’t want to talk to this guy and when she stumbled, they knew something was wrong. The former member of the League of Assassins member would have no problem with holding their liquor, she had to have been drugged. When she hit the ground and was hoisted over the strangers’ shoulder, Rip tried to zoom in to see the man’s face but it was always hidden from the view of the camera. “We are going back to that bar,” he stated as he turned the footage off and headed for the doors, the team hot on his tail.

Many miles away, Sara tried to open her eyes. The pounding of her head and the blood rushing in her ears made it hard to hear or focus on anything. Her body felt like it was filled with lead but she lifted her head up and was able to determine that she was tied to a chair. Her arms were bound behind her and her feet tied to the chair legs. She struggled for a moment to get her hands free but the more she pulled on her bounds the more they dug into her wrists.

A few moments later, the door to the small room flew opened, revealing Damien Darhk. She narrowed her eyes at him as he entered and stood before her. “I’m sure you are wondering why you are here, miss Lance,” he said as he gripped her chin.

She pulled her head away, pain shooting into her temples from the sudden movement. “What do you want Darhk.” She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment waiting for the pain to pass. When she opened them again, Darhk was leaned into her face.

“You,” he stated menacingly. “I want you to suffer, just like your sister did when I ended her pathetic excuse of a life.”

At the mention of her sister, she shot her head forward, ignoring the pain, and headbutted Damien straight in the nose. He reeled back in surprise and brought his hand to his bloody nose. “Oh, I am going to enjoy this.” With that, he flew forward and landed a blow to Sara’s face. The skin on her cheek immediately busted open and blood poured from the gash it had caused. The pain of her headache mixed with the pain of the hit caused her to almost pass out but she hung on. She had worse when she was with the League.

“Is that really necessary Damien?” a new voice chimed in from the doorway.

“Yes, Merlyn, it is. Eobard Thawne wants information on the Spear of Destiny and she is closest to Rip. She captains the ship and knows everything about it. She is our best shot to get what we want.”

Malcolm Merlyn sighed and walked closer to the two. He looked down at Sara who only glared up at him in pure anger.

“Are you sure that this is the best way or so you despise her so much that you want to hear her scream?” Merlyn looked to Damien but already knew the answer.

“I can’t wait to kill this… this excuse of a Legend but I am going to drag it out as painfully as possible. This may not be exactly what Thawne had in mind but he isn’t here now is he?”

Merlyn circled Sara slowly before answering. “No, he isn’t here, not in this era even.”

“So then what’s the big deal? Why not just have some fun and get as much information from her as we can before she dies?”

“I’m right here you know,” Sara said sarcastically after finding her voice. “Go ahead and kill me, I won’t tell you bastards anything.”

“She is League of Assassins, Damien. She won’t break easily.”

Damien smiled at Merlyn in madness. “That’s the point. So would you like to join me or will you run off to daddy Thawne and tell on me.”

Malcolm Merlyn thought about it for a minute. He hated Sara Lance, maybe even more than Darhk did. The way she acted all high and mighty back on team Arrow, hell, he even killed her once already; he just didn’t expect to her to come back to life.

So, to answer Damien’s question, he sent a powerful kick to Sara’s stomach. The force of the assault flipped the chair to the floor with Sara groaning in pain. She hardly gained her breath back before another kick to her abdomen sent her into the darkness of unconsciousness.


	2. Ch.2 - Inferno

Once Merlyn sent the chair with Sara sprawling to the floor, the impact on the cold concrete shattered the wood and left her legs free. Sara now had just enough room to move her hands around. The second kick though knocked the air from her lungs and she momentarily lost her focus. Her hands kept working as she fought to get her breath back and she tried to reign in the pain.

She could hear the two men speaking but the words wouldn’t form right in her mind. Finally, she started coughing and sucked in the sweet air.

“Is that all you got Merlyn?” she taunted as she pushed back the pain. The cold concrete against her split cheek was soothing and drove some of the heat from her body. Whatever that drug was that was slipped into her drink made her feverish, but her mind had cleared and she finally got her hands free.

“Oh, I’ve got a lot more,” he said as he straightened his jacket. “I’ve just got work to do so my friend Damien here will keep you company.”

“Leaving so soon? We just got started,” Damien said with a hint of disappointment.

From the doorway, Merlyn paused for a moment. “Yea, but from my experience dealing with her and her friends, she’s probably already got her hands free, and I sooo don’t want to be around for what comes next.” He then flashed a smile at his partner and then closed the door behind him, locking the two in together.

Without turning around, he asked, “your hands are free aren’t they.”

“You bet your ass they are.” She kicked the broken shards of wood away and shook the loose ropes from her wrists. She stood up shakily but defiantly behind Damien and braced herself for a fight.

“There is no way you can win this, miss Lance.” He spun around inhumanly fast and used his powers to knock Sara into the wall.

After all she had been through, she recovered surprisingly fast and picked herself up off the floor. She then ran at Darhk, dropping down and swiping his legs out from under him at the last second. He hadn’t seen it coming but he was impressed. He bucked up off of the floor and as soon as he landed, the real fight began. They matched each other blow for blow, both having been taught by Ra’s Al Guhl in the League of Assassins. Not caring about playing fair, Damien started to rely on his powers and finally used them to grip Sara around her neck and then pin her to the floor.

“You know,” he said as she struggled in his grip. “I was going to save this for the interrogation but I guess we can start now.” He removed one hand from around her neck and reached into his coat pocket.

Sara felt blood running down her face as she watched him withdraw a syringe.

“What…” she gasped as she tried to get the words out in his vice like grip, “What the hell is that?” Man, Rip better get here soon, she thought.

“Oh this?” he asked innocently as the look of fear flashed through the squirming blondes’ eyes. “It’s called the Red Death, a little something I picked up from the KGB, potent stuff you know.” He brought the needle closer and she could see the evil red liquid within. “It’s supposed to make you feel extreme agony as the serum attacks every nerve cell in your body at once.”

As he brought the needle to her arm, she tried to recoil away. “Oh, don’t worry, it’s only a small dose, we will save the rest for later.” The evil grin across his face widened as the needle plunged effortlessly into her delicate white skin.

The prick of the needle was nothing compared to what came next. He released his grip from around her neck and stood back to watch.

The pain didn’t come in waves, it crashed into her all at once, causing her to lose control of her body. It claimed her as the drug coursed through her bloodstream. She thrashed and clawed at her body trying to find some kind of release as it felt like every cell of her being was on fire. It felt like her muscles were tearing and a thousand needles were piercing her at once. The pain threatened to make her black out so she wouldn’t have to deal with the anguish, but the drug wouldn’t allow it. Her tortured scream echoed through the room and Damien Darhk reveled in it. The agony only lasted for about thirty seconds before it was over.

Damien left her then shaking and bleeding on the cold concrete floor. Her eyes stared into nothingness as she tried to grasp what had just happened.


	3. Lit Fuse

Back with the other Legends, they had just arrived at the bar Sara had been at a few hours ago. They entered as a group and made a beeline for the bar, hoping that the bartender would have something to say.

Rip assumed authority and tried to get the man’s attention. “Hi there, I was hoping to ask you a few…”

“Have you seen a hot blonde, dressed in white in here tonight?” Rip Hunter didn’t have enough time to ask his question before Leonard Snart butted in, interrupting him.

The bartender didn’t even look up to the group, he was too preoccupied with filling his orders. It was only when the whirring sound of Snarts’ cold gun started up that he pulled himself away from his task.

“Look, I haven’t seen anyone!” he said as he threw his hands up and watched the patrons seated around the bar scatter. “I just got called in, the new guy quit an hour ago.”

Beside Snart, Mick growled. “He’s lying.” He then put up his pyro gun, mirroring Snart.

“I’m not! There, my timecard is on the end of the bar.” He nodded to the corner of the bar where the workers punch in.

Rip nodded to Ray to go and retrieve it, to which he did, as well as everyone else’s on the pile. Rip studied it and determined that he was not lying. He then threw the stack in front of the man.

“Give me the other bartenders.” When the man wouldn’t hurry fast enough, he yelled “NOW! Or my friends here won’t hesitate to blow your head off.”

The guy flew forward and pulled out one card with the name Logan James. Rip snatched it from his hand and then left with the rest of his team following him. Leonard hung towards the back and gave the man one last glare before disappearing out of the doors. No one messed with his team, especially with Sara.

Once back at the ship, Gideon ran fingerprints from the timecard and they had a face. Gideon then searched all over the web for ties to that name but his history had been wiped, he was untraceable and their only lead had died.

“Damn it!” Snart yelled when he saw the empty screen. He couldn’t keep his head level, Sara was always the one there to help him calm down in these situations, but she was gone. He vowed to kill this man, and he would search the ends of the Earth to find her.

He stormed out of the room and Amaya nodded to Ray to follow him and try to calm him down. Ray always knew what to say, and he had known Sara longer.

Ray found Leonard Snart staring out of the open door ramp with his arms folded over his chest. He was visibly upset and Ray knew that he had a thing for Sara.

“You know, she likes you too man,” he said standing on the other side of the ramp and mirrored Leonard.

“What the hell are you going on about?” Leonard asked bitterly.

“I mean,” Ray began, “that she likes you too. I see the way she looks at you.”

Leonard just shook his head without saying anything. He didn’t think anyone had noticed the way he looked at Sara. She was always the one he looked for during battles, to make sure she was safe. He always looked out for her, even if he didn’t outwardly show it. Never in his life had he ever cared about anyone, besides his sister and of course his best friend Mick.

“Look, we are going to find her, I don’t know how, but we will.” Leonard finally turned to look at Ray but he looked lost.

“And how are we going to do that, Ray. We have no way of tracking her, our only lead was a dead end and the tape didn’t give us any other clues. Don’t you dare stand there and tell me everything is going to be okay.”

Wait a minute, Ray thought as something struck him. “What did you just say?” he asked Leonard, hoping that whatever he had just said would jog his memory.

Leonard looked at him in confusion. “I said that we have no way of tracking her and…”

“TRACKING!” he yelled as he remembered. He ran back inside and pushed Dr. Martin Stein out of the way of the computer and began tapping away. Leonard was hard on his heels demanding to know what was going on.

“I remembered Felicity talking about something with Oliver.” He said while the rest of the team gathered around confused.

He kept tapping away as he spoke. “Back with team Arrow, I remember hearing about when Sara was resurrected from the Lazarus pit, she was kind of crazy. Okay a lot crazy, and if I remember hearing correctly, Felicity put a tracker in Sara’s shoulder just in case she escaped, and she did but it was no biggie because they found her.”

Leonard was then brought out of his gloom state. “Well can you find her then or not?”

“I don’t know,” he started, “I don’t know if they kept it in or not, but if they did I can turn it back on and hopefully find her.”

“Mr. Palmer you are a genius!” Rip said as he slapped him on the back.

“That’s what they tell me,” Ray said with a smile. It then disappeared into a look of astonishment and a red dot appeared on the screen in front of them. “I found her, but you aren’t going to like where.”

When he didn’t say anything else, Leonard Snart yelled at him, “Well where is she?!”

After a pause, “Damien Darhk has her, back at the warehouse we fought him at earlier.”

Everyone’s faces fell, this was not good news. A regular thug they could handle, but a thug with powers with sheer hatred for the team, Sara in particular, was going to be tricky.

“What does he want with her?” Jax asked, being the one brave enough to ask it.

Rip knew though, he was after information on the Spear of Destiny.

Miles away at the warehouse, the basement had gotten cold and Sara was soon shivering. She should have been able to withstand the temperature with her League training but that injection messed her up.

There were so many things running through her mind at once as she pulled herself from her spot on the floor where Darhk had left her. She drug her weakened body to the wall and sat with her back to it. Darhk didn’t bother with tying her up again so she just sat and applied pressure to her wrist that had somehow managed to get cut during her struggle with the Red Death. She had gashes all along her arms and with the blood under her fingernails, she assumed they were from her clawing at her skin as the fire ran through her veins.

My team is coming for me, they wouldn’t leave me behind, she thought. She tried to shut off her mind to keep the memory from that drug out, so she focused on the team. Rip wouldn’t leave me…would he? Doubt started to creep in so she tried to force it out. Thoughts like that could be dangerous. Of course someone would be coming for her, right? Snart would figure out that I didn’t come back, he wouldn’t leave me. She let her gaze shift to the floor and noticed that a pool of blood had formed. What the hell?

She leaned over to inspect it and then the pain flooded back into her body. She had let her mind slip for just a moment and pain in her side made her gasp. She reached around slowly and pulled the fabric of her suit back around the newfound injury.

“Well shit,” she said audibly. A sliver of wood from the busted chair had made its way into her side and she didn’t notice it until now. She grasped the three-inch protrusion just under her ribcage and then prepared herself to pull it out. Mentally counting to three, she pulled forcefully and bit her lip to keep from yelling out. She panted from the exertion and then looked at the sliver in her hand. It had impaled her about four inches deep and she thanked god it hadn’t been any deeper.

Before she could do anything else to stop the bleeding, the door slammed back open revealing Damien Darhk once again. Sara quickly stood and slid the sliver of wood into her belt behind her.

“Oooh that doesn’t look too good.” As Darhk spoke, he cocked his head and stared at her still bleeding side. She didn’t need to look at it to know that it was running down her leg. He then looked around the room and smiled at the pool of blood right behind her near the wall and then the one on the floor where he had left her an hour before.

Standing strong, she glared at him daring him to speak again.

“So tough, little Canary, but not for long. Once I break you, you are going to tell me everything I want to know about your little group of friends. The first thing I want to know is how ‘Gideon’ operates. I know you know this answer, since you captain the ship.”

“I won’t tell you a thing, Damien. You would have to kill me first,” she threatened with fire in her eyes.

He walked into the room fully now and closed the door behind him. Sara noticed that the cuts and bruises she had given him earlier had vanished. His hand wavered over an extended taser attached at his hip and when he caught her looking at it, he pulled it free and allowed the electricity to flow freely through it.

“I know you aren’t afraid of me, yet, but that is going to change real soon. So, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Which would you prefer miss Lance?”

Instead of answering, she readied herself for a fight.

He laughed to himself at the sight before him. “The hard way it is.” Without warning, he lunged forward to strike her with the taser pole but she bent and spun away from it while pushing her pain to the back of her mind. Darhk countered and used his free arm to swing at her injured side but she feigned to the left and with a single, fluid movement, pulled the sliver of wood from her belt and plunged it into Darhks shoulder. She drove it deep, wishing that it was longer so it would cut through the other side.

He roared in pain and while she still had her hand on the wood, he slammed the taser into her stomach with such force that she was carried off her feet and electricity surged through her body. She gritted her teeth, unable to move for a moment but that was all Damien needed to recover. He kicked her in her injured side as she laid on the ground and caused her to flip over onto her stomach.

All of her instincts told her to get up but a strong boot pressed into the middle of her back, pinning her to the cold floor. She tried to buck backwards and catch him with a backwards kick but he expected it and moved, kicking her in the face instead and stunning her for a moment. He then kneeled into the small of her back to where she couldn’t move. He wrenched her arms behind her back and asked her a new question.

“How were you able to pull Rip Hunter out of his own mind?”

She spit out a wad of blood and smiled, blood staining her mouth and lips. “Fuck you,” she said in defiance.

Damien rolled his eyes and sighed. He pressed a button on his taser rod and it quickly turned into a spear. He half expected to see some kind of reaction from Sara but her sideways gaze from the floor showed no fear. “Have it your way then,” he growled.

Sara braced herself for the impact of the spear but once he plunged it into her back, she found out that it was laced with more of the Red Death drug. The fire enveloped her again but with a much lower intensity than before. She couldn’t move as he stood, still gripping the spear that was sticking though her back. The pain was unimaginable but it was as if her vocal chords had momentarily frozen, she was sure she would have screamed but no sound came out.

“Last chance,” he said as he leaned over and grabbed her hair on the back of her head, pulling it so she was forced to pick up her head.

She shivered from the instant fever and pain and finally managed a weak laugh. “Not a chance,” she spat, much to the dismay of Darhk.

He then wrenched her from the floor and pushed the spear all the way through her back, causing her to involuntarily gasp. He let go of her and she looked down to see the spear sticking out of her stomach. More of the Red Death pulsed through her system and right before she collapsed, the tip of the spear disappeared back into her body as Darhk pulled it back out. She fell to her knees, her hands going to her new wound. She knew she had to stop the bleeding but her mind became fuzzy as it felt like pure fire was coursing through her system. Falling the rest of the way to the ground, her gaze landed on the door, her only method of escape.

She willed it to open as her vision blurred in and out. She wanted Snart to rush through and pick her up, carrying her away from this place. When the door finally did open, it was Malcolm Merlyn who entered.


	4. Crossroads of the Soul

Malcolm was deep in his work when the computers alerted him to a tracker being activated. He put down his papers and walked closer to the screens, trying to remember who was tagged of their goons and who wasn't, and also why one of the trackers would suddenly switch on. He then locked onto the signal and tore it apart, looking for who it belonged to. When he finally saw the familiar code of team Arrow, he realized what had happened. Sara had a tracker, and the time ship had hacked in and turned it on to try and locate their missing team member.

He left the room and hurried through the halls until he found the 'torture room.' When he walked in, he was stunned for a moment by what he saw. There was blood all over the floor and even Damien had some running down his shoulder. Apparently, Sara had gotten in a good attack, but Damien's attack against her was far worse. Her white suit was now tinged with deep red as she lay half-conscious on the floor. Damien gripped some sort of spear as he hovered over her and when his eyes met Sara's, a look of disappointment instead of pain reflected in them.

"What do you want Malcolm?" Damien asked at the interruption.

"We have a problem. Little miss sunshine has a tracker that was just activated, we need to move now."

Damien suddenly started grumbling to himself and bent down to Sara's level. He flipped her over and Malcolm watched her choke back her pain. She was handling it all pretty well though, but her entire body shivered as she succumbed to the Red Death drug again.

Damien felt around the usual places a tracker would be, around her neck, behind her ear, or on her forearms. When he reached her shoulder she flinched away, alerting him to the fact that he had found it. Malcolm watched as he pushed a little harder and when Damien grinned, he knew that he had felt it deep within her shoulder.

It was almost pitiful to watch how she couldn't fight back. She kept trying to roll back over but her body wouldn't listen. Damien took out his knife but was having a hard time with keeping her still enough to cut it out.

"Malcolm, instead of standing there could you please at least hold her down?"

Sighing, he walked over and kneeled at her head. Her eyes were unfocused but he saw how she was trying to fight through the drug. He held her right shoulder down and then gripped her left arm out of the way of the knife.

The blade pushed in effortlessly into her smooth skin and the new pain seemed to pull Sara out of her Red Death trance for a moment. She bucked her body in an effort to get away but with Damien and Malcolm pinning her down, she couldn't move. Her lips pulled into a grimace as the blade cut deeper into her shoulder. Once it hit the tracker deep insider of her shoulder, Damien wasted no time in scooping it out and causing Sara to momentarily whimper as he hit a nerve.

She bit her tongue to make herself stop, she would not show weakness in front of these two monsters. Looking Malcolm in the eye as Damien inspected the tracker, she whispered Thea's name in hopes that it would make him do the right thing and just let her go.

As soon as the tracker was out of her arm, Malcolm looked at the bloody mess. Blood was now flowing freely from her shoulder and it even looked like Damien had hit a nerve by the way she had cried out like that. He looked at her then and noticed her gaze meeting his.

"Thea." The blonde whispered to him.

How dare she whisper his daughters name aloud. Was she trying to get him to feel some sort of guilt or remorse for what he had done today? Sara should hate Thea right now, he had brainwashed her into killing Sara after all. The Lazarus pit should have made Sara's bloodlust after his daughter intensify, especially in a moment like this. Was she really that strong to fight to overcome it? He had to respect the fact that she fought against her instincts every day to keep away from Thea, to protect her from herself. He knew that Thea cared for Sara, they were close friends. Should he respect that bond and try to help in some way?

Before he could think about it anymore, Damien stood suddenly and looked closer at the tracker. Sara's blood dripped from his hands as he crushed it in his grip. The tiny shards of metal clinked to the floor and he gave Sara one last kick to her leg before rushing from the room to pack what little work on the Spear of Destiny they had.

The pain of the kick exploded into her mind and all she could see was white. She didn't think that it could be at all possible to feel any more pain but she was wrong. The Red Death just seemed to make every little thing intensify by tenfold. Death seemed like such a beautiful thing right now, but she couldn't let her team down. Damien would just go after one of them next, so she had to stay strong and take it. She had no idea how much information they had on the spear and she had to somehow find a way to destroy whatever they had. It all just seemed so impossible right now.

Her body shook and rolled with white hot pain. Her fever had spiked and she could feel herself going into shock. She tried to ease her mind and calm herself down but no matter how hard she tried to focus, the drug just obliterated every thought she tried to conjure. Three arrows to her abdomen and the fall from the roof of a building that killed her the first time was nothing compared to this.

After Damien left, Malcolm was left in the room with Sara, alone. His hate for the broken blonde ebbed away as he imagined Thea lying there. How many times had she helped Thea, even after she found out that it was Thea herself who had let the killing arrows fly? He suddenly knew that he had to help somehow.

Sara wasn't unconscious yet and the drug was doing its dirty work through her system. She knew that she had to get up and move, she was in here alone with Malcolm Merlyn and the door was still open. She was just too weak to try and her pathetic attempt at trying to sit up was thwarted by Merlyn pushing her back down.

The pain filled groan that escaped the blonde's lips would have been heartbreaking to anyone else besides Merlyn. "Be still, you will only kill yourself faster," he said as he kneeled to her level and began undoing her White Canary suit. Sara's hand shot out and gripped his wrist, daring him to try anything further.

It suddenly occurred to him that she may be thinking that he was going to take advantage of her in her weakened state. "Relax, I may be a monster but I would never do something like that," he said. "Thea would never forgive me, and you can thank her for me helping you, even though I think that you aren't really worth it."

"Get away from me," she spat out weakly. Sara let her hand fall back to the floor as a wave of pain hit her. Malcolm picked it back up and had her hold it over her stomach where the spear had gone through to stop the bleeding. He gently rolled her on her side as he unzipped the back of her suit. She didn't fight back, either that or she was just too exhausted to fight back anymore. After a few minutes, he had her completely out of it and he thanked god she at least had something underneath it.

Her black sports bra and short black shorts were now the only things keeping her warm, but he needed her suit to tear it into strips. Before he could though, Damien rushed back in telling him to grab her and to go.

"Give me another minute to get her patched up," he said as he tore another piece from her torn suit. Sara was still laying on her right side with her legs curled up. Malcolm cursed himself when he saw that she was now wavering into unconsciousness. He was holding onto her left shoulder to tie the wound when Damien grabbed him by the back of his neck and pulled him up. He watched helplessly as Sara finally lost her grip and finally slipped into unconsciousness. Her hand holding her stomach dropped and it looked like she was in a painful sleep. It took a lot for someone of her stamina to allow herself to slip away like that.

He pulled out of Damien's grip, still holding onto the suit, and talked some sense in him. "If we mover her like this, she will bleed out in minutes. She's no good to us like that, now is she?"

Damien suddenly understood. "Fine, but we need to send her 'team' a message to not follow us. They are smart, Merlyn, and they won't stop looking for her."

"I think you've sent them a good enough message," he said gazing around the room at the carnage.

Damien thought for a moment and then pulled out his phone. "Not yet." He pulled up his camera and snapped a picture. It showed Sara laying in a pool of her own blood without her suit on. The sports bra and tight black shorts showed a lot of skin, skin that was littered with cuts, bruises, gashes, and her impaled stomach. He switched it to video to show every little detail and at the end focused on his face. "Don't even think about following us, or you won't get her back alive." He ended it and tossed it to the floor.

"Hurry up Malcolm, we need to go."

Malcolm Merlyn then hurried and did his best to patch her up. He got most of the bleeding to stop, all the while thinking about Damien's message. 'or you won't get her back alive.' He was going to kill her anyways when he got what he wanted. He only wondered if he should continue to help her or not. His conscience was cleared at the moment, he had helped her. From now on he thought he should just stay out of it.

Deciding it was time to go, Damien butted in and picked her up bridal style. The three of them left the room and the warehouse to begin the next step in their plan.


	5. Past as Prologue

“Her signal disappeared!” Ray called out as they were ready to leave the time ship. “I don’t know how, it shouldn’t have failed like that, not with Felicity’s coding.”  
“It doesn’t matter now Ray,” Rip called over his shoulder. “We already know where she is, now let’s move!”  
The whole way there took a matter of 20 minutes but it felt like so much longer to Snart. Sara was strong he knew, but he didn’t like the idea that Damien Darhk had her. Ray, Jax, and Martin stayed back to run surveillance and were going to be back up if they needed.  
When they arrived, the main floor of the warehouse looked empty but they knew better than to just give up. They searched around and Amaya found the hidden door behind some hanging tarps. They filed into the staircase which led downward into the basement with Snart at the lead.  
He paused at the bottom, staring at the long and winding hallway before him. The dimly lit halls were giving him a bad feeling but he pushed it down and continued on. Each of the rooms turned out to be empty, not even chair remained. One room though looked like it had been occupied; a stray paper here and there as well as missing patches of dust where a computer may have been.  
Snart, Rip, and Mick looked around for anything that would be useful as Amaya sensed something in the last room around the corner. Her senses picked up the strong smell of blood as she rounded the corner and dread filled her mind. She was about to turn around to call the rest of the team but she worried that if Sara was in there, she could be seriously hurt and may not have that sort of time.  
When Amaya reached the door, she pushed it open hoping to see Sara there waiting for her. Her hand flew to her mouth when the vacant room presented the horrors of what had happened in the last few hours.  
“RIP!” she screamed, hoping they would hear her and come running. She couldn’t move to go get them as fear for her friends’ life rushed into her body.  
After a few moments, she was shoved to the side as Snart ran into the room and froze just as she did. Rip and Mick joined her at the doorway and were just as afraid for Sara as she was.  
“Oh my god,” Rip said as he took in the scene. The amount of blood covering the floor was not a good sign.  
“It can’t be all hers, can it?” Amaya asked as she feared for the worst.  
Rip walked in and stood beside a frozen Snart. He looked around the room and found the phone lying next to a larger pool of blood and some metal shards. He picked up the shards and phone carefully as it was all covered in blood. He immediately put the shards in his pocket as the phone interested him the most. The rest of the team came in and walked around looking for clues. Rip opened up the phone and the first thing he saw was the picture Damien had taken of Sara.  
The look of horror on his face must have given it away because Snart saw it turned towards him.  
“What is it, Rip?” he asked as his fear was slowly being replaced with anger.  
Avoiding the question and wanting to get out of the room, he shoved the phone into his pocket and cleared his throat. “She’s not here, let’s get back to the ship.”  
Snart was about to go for his pocket when Mick’s foot kicked something in the dim light. “Hey lookie what I found.” He bent over and picked up the metal pole, inspecting it closely. “It looks like a spear,” he said aloud. Snart rushed over and snatched it from his hands, noticing the blood clinging to the end.  
Rip looked sick, suspecting the injury to Sara that it had inflicted. He knew the intense bleeding to her stomach had to be a stab wound and that spear was about the right size.  
“Let’s go, bring the spear Snart.” He hurried from the room and almost lost his stomach. They had to find Sara, and soon. She didn’t look like she could last too much longer.  
Back on the ship, the spear they had found was lying on the table in front of them. They all stared at it, not sure what the next step would be. Stein made the first move and grabbed the spear. He looked at it closely and discovered a button near the base. When he pressed it, the tip retracted and became a taser.  
“Fascinating,” he remarked as he pressed it again, turning it back into a spear. When he inspected the tip, he noticed the thin needle protruding from the pointed end. “Well this is interesting, there seems to be a needle on the tip here. What would a needle be needed for?” He asked no one in particular, but being curious, Snart reached over and took the spear from Stein’s hands.  
“Only one way to find out,” he said as he prepared to stick his arm with it.  
Rip and Jax grabbed on to each of his arms to stop him and Amaya took the spear away from him.  
“No, Snart,” Rip said as he relaxed his grip once the spear was out of his hands. “You don’t know what is in that needle, it could kill you for all we know! We should run some tests first.”  
A very pissed off Leonard Snart shook Rip and Jax off. “We don’t have time for tests, Rip. You saw that room, Sara could be out of time soon and we need to know what we are dealing with.”  
Rip glared back at him. “I said no, Snart, and that’s the end of it.”  
Snart could feel himself beginning to lose control. “You are not the captain, Rip. I don’t take orders from you.” He knew it was a low blow, but it was something he had to say.  
Rip shouldn’t have been as upset as he was at Snart’s comment, but it hit him hard. He knew he wasn’t the captain anymore but giving orders was just something he felt he had to do.  
So, he straightened his jacket and summoned authority. “Sara isn’t here Snart, she has no second in command. Need I remind you that this is MY SHIP!”  
Rips comment was like a shot in the chest. They were spending too much time arguing and not enough time trying to get answers. He glanced over to Mick standing next to Amaya and gave him a nod. They knew each other so well that they could almost feel what each other was thinking.  
Mick grabbed the spear from Amaya’s hands and drove the needle into Snart’s side.  
It only took a couple of seconds for whatever was in the needle to take effect. The team all watched as Snart dropped to the ground and began convulsing. He started clawing at his skin as if trying to release the pain from within.  
“Get him to the med bay!” Rip screamed at his team. As Mick grabbed him and rushed him there, the team all followed hot on his tail.  
As they worked to stabilize him, the fire running through his veins was hotter than anything he had ever felt. He wished just this once that they would shoot him with his cold gun, couldn’t they see the flames engulfing his body? Every nerve in his body screamed as his blood boiled. It felt like hundreds of razor sharp blades were running across his skin and the agony made him scream like he’s never screamed before.  
It lasted no more than a minute and it left his system as quickly as it had entered. He lay there on the table, sweating feverishly as wires ran across his now bare chest. The other Legends had surrounded him as he went through the agony and tried to get his body readings as well as keep him on the table. The monitors were all off the charts as he writhed and screamed on the table but as soon as the screams stopped, Snart’s vitals started to drop back to somewhat normal levels though they were still high.  
He became still but he was still conscious. They watched as he panted and tried to get his breath back. When he tried to sit up, Rip helped support him.  
“Snart take it easy…” Rip said as he tried to stand. He was wobbly but Rip found that he could support himself so he backed away.  
“What the hell was that,” he asked to no one in particular. No one spoke since they didn’t know, but when a computer beeped, Martin Stein rushed over to it to read the blood sample it had run from Snart.  
He turned back to the group and nervously pushed his glasses back in place. “It’s called the Red Death, formulated by the KGB I believe. I’ve heard about it before but I’ve never seen it in action. It attacks the nerve cells in the body and makes you feel the worst agony you have ever felt. Truly remarkable concoction but based on your results…that wasn’t even a full dose.”  
Dread filled the Legends in the room. If that wasn’t considered a full dose, what could this drug possibly do that was any worse?  
Amaya gasped as realization hit her. “But Sara…the room we just saw…what if they…” She couldn’t finish her sentences. Could Darhk have given Sara a full dose? Could it have killed her?  
“Sara is strong,” Rip began, “she’s stronger than any of us in this room. We are going to find her and bring her home.” The determination in his voice surprised him. The picture he saw made him doubt himself but Sara had died once before and came back. She never stayed down for long.  
Ray sighed from across the room. “I can’t get her tracker to work, it’s like it’s just gone.”  
Just then did Rip remember about the metal shards he had found. He reached into his pocket and withdrew them, dropping them into Rays hand. “I think this is what’s left of it.”  
Ray looked at it closer and then threw them at the wall to his left in frustration. “How!” he yelled. “How could they have known she even had one! That thing was buried deep inside of her shoulder…” He trailed off as he realized what had happened. “Of course, they would have been monitoring for that sort of thing. How could I have been so stupid!”  
Amaya placed her hand on his shoulder. “It’s not your fault Ray, we are going to find her, we just have to change directions.”  
Finally getting his strength back, Snart walked to Rip and stood threateningly before him. “What else is in your pockets, Rip?”  
Rip swallowed, knowing what he was talking about. He remorsefully reached into his pocket and retrieved the phone he had picked up from the warehouse. “I didn’t want to worry you all, I found this back at the warehouse, it had a picture of Sara on it.”  
He then turned on his heels and walked back into the control room to pull up the image on the big screen. The team walked in with Mick supporting a weakened Snart and stood in front of the screen. Rip sighed as he clicked a button and the image appeared, shocking everyone in the room.  
It didn’t show everything but it was enough. Sara was lying on her side, covered in her own blood. Rip again saw the wound the spear had caused and shuddered.  
No one could say a word or look away from the image. It was only after some time that Snart noticed the icon showing another image that was taken.  
“There’s something else,” he said pointing it out to Rip. Rip then saw what he was talking about and clicked to the next image.  
It wasn’t an image at all but a video. He hovered over the play button for a moment before pressing it.  
They weren’t at all prepared for what they saw next as it was so much more detailed.  
The video started with Sara’s face in the frame. They all got a good look at her bruised and bloodied features. Her split lip, cut cheek, and gashed forehead still bled with deep bruising accenting it all. Her closed eyes should have made it look like she was sleeping, but the pain she felt had contorted her beautiful face into a look of agony as she was trapped in unconsciousness. The finger shaped bruises around her neck matched the ones on her arms, and her shoulder showed the aftermath of the trackers brutal removal. Her White Canary outfit was no longer covering her body, but the glistening fever she had and the bruises were. As the camera panned down, they saw her bruised and possibly broken ribs, the deep purples and reds blending in with her black sports bra. They saw old scars, three circular dots clustered together on her torso; everyone but Ray wondered about its story. The video now showed a heavily bleeding stomach wound, it then panned to the other side and everyone know knew it was the Red Death laced spear that had gone all the way through. The pain she would have felt would have been unimaginable. The old scarring on her back though shocked everyone, they never really knew how much she had gone through in her tortured life. Old scar tissue crisscrossed her entire back, reminding them of some sort of sick jigsaw puzzle. More cuts and bruises littered her body, past her short black shorts and all the way to her bare feet. The only comfort the team found was that her knuckles were raw and bleeding, like she had fought back at one point and gotten in some good hits.  
At the end of the video, they saw the monster that had caused it all, with Malcolm Merlyn glaring in the background. Damien Darhk’s message chilled them to the bone but they were all in silent agreement that they would stop at nothing to get her back.  
"Don't even think about following us, or you won't get her back alive."  
“We are going to get her out of there, no matter what it takes,” Rip reiterated.  
“Look at her Rip,” Amaya yelled as she pointed at Sara’s broken body. “She could be dying as we speak. No one loses that much blood and lives.”  
“She’s done it before,” Ray said with his arms crossed, staring at the floor as he remembered helping Felicity and Oliver through the loss of Sara the first time. Though it wasn’t exactly the same, she had beaten death.  
“Yes Ray, we know,” Martin Stein said next to Ray. They all knew she had died once before but they really had no idea the details involved. “We all know she’s died before, but what’s the big deal? I died once you know; I was pronounced clinically dead for two minutes after a lab accident in my younger days.”  
Ray looked up at him in all seriousness. “Two minutes…that’s a joke. And I bet the paramedics brought you back and you were fine, no problems at all, am I right?”  
“You know,” Mick said as his curiosity spiked, “we don’t know anything about Sara do we…apart from being a member of the League of Assassins.”  
Stein looked up triumphantly, his ego elevated at the thought of coming back to life, as if that somehow made him superior to the others.  
Ray rolled his eyes at Stein and decided to tell them about Sara. There was nothing else they could do while they waited, Gideon was going to alert them whenever anything at all came through in reference to Sara, Darhk, or Merlyn.  
“You all saw those scars to her torso, right? Those three, deadly little scars were caused by arrows. Malcolm Merlyn has also had it out for Sara, not just Damien. He somehow brainwashed his daughter, Thea, into murdering her for his own benefit. They were on the roof of a building and Thea shot three arrows into her chest. If that didn’t kill her immediately then the three story fall off the side of the building did. Her sister Laurel found her and brought her back to the Arrow base. No one could figure out who did it, Thea didn’t even know what she had done. Man, when the League found out about her death, they sent assassins after Oliver, thinking him to be the killer but they eventually traced it back to Thea, and then Malcolm Merlyn. A lot of other things happened in between but it was the Lazarus pit that brought her back.”  
“Yes,” Rip said as he remembered reading about the pit. “It allows the ones lucky enough to be given access to it to have their life restored.”  
Ray nodded before beginning again. “When she was brought back to life, she wasn’t the same. There was something…very wrong with her. It was because she had been dead for too long that it affected her differently. She wasn’t Sara anymore, she was filled with such bloodlust that she was crazy. They had to chain her up to keep her from hurting anyone while they figured out what to do. That’s when they implanted her tracker by the way. Well she escaped and was loose in the city. She killed several people in her search for Thea. Thea was nearly killed when Sara finally found her but eventually Oliver shot her with a tranq arrow and they tried to restore her soul. Oliver called an old friend…John Constantine and he did some kind of ritual, which worked by the way.”  
“John Constantine?” Rip asked incredulously. “I’ve heard stories about him, that’s incredible.”  
“Wait wait wait, hold up,” Jax asked in confusion. “How long was she dead for, before she was brought back to life? All of those events didn’t happen overnight, did it.”  
Ray looked Stein dead in the eye as he answered Jax’s question. “Sara Lance was dead for just over a year.”  
The room went silent at this revelation. It was so hard to believe, they all knew that she had died but they always assumed it was for a few hours or something like that, not an entire year.  
“And it’s not just that, she survived drowning when the Queens Bandit went down in the middle of the ocean. She drifted alone for days until a ship called the Amazo found her. They tortured her there until she became a slave to Dr. Ivo and his quest for the Mirakuru drug. When she escaped, her and Oliver were pursued on the island of Lian Yu for weeks, where she almost died, again. After taking over the Amazo, it went down, taking Sara with it. She survived, again, and was this time rescued by Nyssa Al Guhl, Ra’s Al Guhl’s father where she trained alongside the League of Assassins. So THAT,” he explained as he looked at everyone in the room, “that is why we are going to keep trying. If she is strong enough to overcome the effects of the Lazarus pit, then she is strong enough to overcome anything.”


	6. Double Vision

The moment Sara started to come to, she knew she was screwed. She felt the chains around her wrists and the pain in her body made her feel sick. Whoever put her there at least had the decency to lay her on her uninjured shoulder. Something tight around her midsection made her panic for a second until she realized that it was a bandage.  Someone had thinly wrapped it around her to try and stop the bleeding and if she had to guess, it was Malcolm for whatever reason. Damien sure knew where to drive that spear to cause the most amount of pain. She was taught the same exact mark when she was in the League as well.

The damp air around her made her cough which sent waves of pain throughout her damaged body. The coldness of wherever she was didn’t help as well as the dizziness that kept making the world around her rock. A particularly bad wave forced her to open her eyes as she tried to grab onto the chains holding her to the wall to keep her from rolling over. Her senses sharpened and the salty smell in her nose didn’t seem to be blood. It was even more familiar, and then it hit her. Looking around, the small portly window above her sent dread right through her.

She wasn’t on land anymore, she was on a ship and for a moment she flashed back to her time on the Amazo. The storm raging just outside was nothing compared to what was coming next. Just as a flash of lightning illuminated the room, she saw that she was not alone. Damien Darhk was sitting in the corner, just watching her as she tried to pull herself together.

“Well that’s not creepy at all,” she stated at barely above a whisper, cursing herself for how weak she sounded. She received a grin from Darhk as he got up from his seat. The rocking of the waves did nothing to alter his balance as he walked across the room. Knowing she was in a vulnerable position, Sara choked back the pain as she sat up with her back to the wall.

“Where the hell are we?” she asked as he kneeled to her level. He stayed a few feet back, knowing how dangerous and unpredictable she could be even in her current state.

He grinned before answering. “Why should I answer you when you’ve yet to answer any of my questions?”

“Because you ask stupid questions,” she shot back without missing a beat. There was no way she would ever betray her team. She didn’t care if he killed her, she wouldn’t spill anything.

Darhk chuckled menacingly as he stood back to his full height. As he rose, she watched as he snaked a hand into his pocket, withdrawing another syringe. Just the sight of it made her visibly shudder. She knew he wanted her to beg but she refused, she was stronger than that.

“Miss Lance, where is the other shard of the Spear?” He took his time looking the syringe over, knowing that the sight of it was making her shudder.

Sara hesitated for a moment, not from rethinking her answer, but to brace herself for what she knew was coming. “Have you tried looking up your ass?”

Darhk wasted no time in lunging forward and injecting the red substance into her exposed leg. It pissed him off to no end that she wouldn’t give him any information. Even most League members would have broken by now. Her reflexes kicked in and as soon as the needle made contact with her leg; she kicked Darhk right in the face but the damage had been done. He stormed from the room to join Malcolm in going over the latest research they had gathered thanks to Eobard Thawne. While he looked over the files and sulked with his throbbing nose, he let the Red Death drug do the job for him. Sara was left in agony down the hall and he could hear her trying to fight it from here. He wanted to know so bad how she would handle the full dose. He couldn’t risk it just yet though incase her system couldn’t handle it. Darhk wanted to drag it out for as long as he could.

After 10 minutes had passed, he went back and tried again. He found her laying back on her side, panting from exhaustion. The glare she gave him was unfocused and he wasted no more time in asking again. He waved the new syringe in front of her face as she tried relentlessly to pull away from it. Darhk grabbed her by her injured shoulder and pressed his thumb into the wound, causing her to freeze in place to avoid more pain.

“Where is your half of the Spear, Miss Lance. We are close to finding the last shard connected to our half, it’s only a matter of time.”

Sara stayed silent this time and kept her smartass remarks to herself. She could feel the pain in her shoulder increase as his grip tightened in frustration. When she didn’t answer, he plunged the needle into her arm and emptied the serum into her blood stream yet again.

“She’s never going to tell you anything, Damien,” Malcolm said from the doorway as he watched the scene unfold.

Damien roughly pushed Sara away before joining Malcolm at the door. He glanced back over his shoulder to see Sara curl into a ball and then left with Malcolm following him.

Sara’s mind began been playing tricks on her as the serum rejoined her bloodstream. She kept imagining her team rushing in there to save her, only to be disappointed in the state she was in. They would leave, handing her back over to Damien without even glancing back. She could see Rip Hunter smile at the thought of becoming captain again.

At one point, Leonard Snart rushed in to rescue her for the dozenth time.

“Sara! It’s okay, I’m here. We are going to get you out of here.” The worry splayed across his features made her believe it was actually him…again. Though doubt flickered just beneath the surface, she clung to the hope that this was real.

He picked her up in his strong arms and rushed through the door, only to find Damien Darhk waiting there with a gun pointed to them. Leonard grabbed her closer and did his best to shield her from the aim of the gun.

“Leave the girl, Mr. Snart,” he threatened.

Sara felt the grip around her tighten. “Never,” he growled out as the rest of the team came rushing in behind him. They assumed their positions in front to protect Sara and prepared for a fight.

“I’ll make you a deal then,” Darhk offered. “Sara, for our piece of the Spear.”

Sara could almost laugh at Damien right now. There was no way her team would give her up like that, even if it was for a piece of the Spear. They would always find a way to do the right thing.

“Deal.”

Her heart dropped as the teams answer echoed through her mind. The next thing she knew she was being handed over to Damien as Malcolm brought forth their end of the bargain. She then watched as her team left her, again, without a backwards glance.

This scene as well as many others kept repeating over and over as the Red Death held her captive in her own mind. The faith she had in her team was starting to waver and that was exactly what Damien was waiting for. If she lost trust in them completely, she would be more willing to tell him where their half of the Spear was in revenge.

Back in the control room, Darhk started to doubt himself as well.

“I underestimated her perseverance. Most League members would have given up by now, I’ve been giving her a much higher dose.”

Malcolm could see that he was clearly agitated. He watched him click through the computer files angrily. “She isn’t like most League members, Damien, you know that. We need to think of something else to get what we need.”

Damien backed away from the computer when his new phone buzzed from within his pocket. He pulled it out and glanced at the screen before putting it away. “That will have to wait, our contacts are on thier way to the warehouse dock. We will think of something when we get back. Just give me a minute and ill join you on the deck.”

Malcolm watched him draw up more of the serum as they left the room. He headed to the top deck while Damien went to give Sara yet another dose. He didn’t exactly feel sorry for the blonde, but it did make him shudder at the torture Damien was putting her through.

When Damien met him on the deck minutes later, he ordered a few guards to watch Sara until they got back.

The storm that raged on outside kept tossing the ship around. Sara didn’t know that they were still docked, but even with that piece of information it wouldn’t have made her feel any better as the feeling of being on rough seas filled her with fear. The last injection Damien Darhk had just given her increased her emotions and she was in full panic mode. Her fever had spiked again and the white bandage around her middle started to turn red again as her thrashing aggravated the wound. Her mind kept throwing her back to her time on the Amazo, the tortures she endured there were nothing compared to now but with the memory of that pulled to the surface mixed with the amount of pain she was feeling now, she didn’t know what was real anymore. The little rescue missions that kept replaying in her mind too pulled her into despair. Maybe her team really would abandon her. She had to stay strong though, for herself now.

It felt like razor blades were being pulled across her skin and the pressure in her head made her want to pass out. The drug wouldn’t let her though and she was so absorbed in her own pain and mind that she didn’t notice the two guards enter the room until the drug wore off.

The two guards who entered were finally able to see where the screams had been coming from all night. The poor blonde laying on the floor was a picture of pure agony. Her skin glistened in sweat and she was covered in old and new blood. She was barely clothed, save for a black sports bra and matching shorts. Her breathing was so fast that they thought she was going to hyperventilate. She had her fists clenched so hard that her nails had cut into her palms, causing them to bleed. It looked like she had a pretty nasty wound under the bandage around her middle and the bruising all over her body was a sickening array of purples, blacks and blues.

They were told not to touch her and to never leave her side as she was dangerous. They laughed to themselves, there didn’t seem to be anything dangerous about the beautiful broken woman chained to the wall across the room. Nevertheless, they kept their guns on the ready just in case.

After a few minutes of watching the woman writhe in agony, she became still with her back turned to them. She was facing the wall so they couldn’t be sure if she was still alive or not but they had strict orders to not get too close or touch her. About 10 more minutes tick by and the only sound they could hear was their own breathing. The ship then rocked, causing them to lose their balance for a moment but they remained on their feet. Two dull cracks then echoed in the room and they only hoped that the old ship wasn’t about to break in half.

As Sara came out of the Red Death state, the pounding in her head had increased but she could start piecing together thoughts. Her body hurt more than ever so she tried not to move in fear that she would involuntarily cry out and show the two guards she sensed in the room how broken she really was. She wanted nothing more than to just die right now but she still wanted to fight. Even if her team wouldn’t be coming, she still wanted to go out strong and prove to Damien that she wouldn’t be broken easily, even if her team did betray her.

Her senses slowly started to return but the entirety of the pain hadn’t yet. Her adrenaline was going to kick in soon though and she knew there was no better time to try one last time to escape. There were two guards in her room, and that had to mean Damien wasn’t around to stop her from trying anything. She quickly formulated a plan and then acted before the full force of the pain kicked in.

She heard the cracks echo around the room as she skillfully dislocated her thumbs. The chains around her wrists were then able to slip off freely. Her wrists were rubbed raw from the struggling the last few hours and the biting cold made them sting. The men were behind her, about 8 feet away so she would have to move fast before they could fire off a shot. Taking a deep breath, she moved.

She would have made it to where the guards were with no problem but she underestimated how foggy the drug had made her. Her reflexes were too slow and the man on the right sensed her coming and fired a shot into her thigh. She stumbled but used that to her advantage and collapsed into their legs. Just as she made contact, the storm sent another wave onto the ship, causing the men to grab ahold of something while one of their guns fell literally into her arms. Without even an ounce of hesitation, she fired it into each of their skulls, killing them instantly. Instinctively, she tucked the gun into the waistband of her shorts in case she would need it later.

Her adrenaline then started to kick back in and the new searing pain in her thigh dulled to a throbbing ache. Though it started bleeding profusely, she picked herself up and limped from the room and down the hall. The door at the end was opened and she found a laptop open with lots of files, as well as paper files littering the large desk.

She recognized the references to the Spear of Destiny on the open computer and then quickly dumped them onto the flash drive plugged into the computer and then tucked it into her bra. Getting an idea, she tried to think of a way to contact the Waverider, just in case, but there was absolutely no internet connection. She slammed her hand onto the desk and left a bloody handprint in its wake. Her vison wavered in and out and she feared that she was about to pass out. Whatever she was going to do she would have to do it quick.

“Well fuck me,” she whispered to herself as she noticed the small hand held propane torch sitting on the corner of the desk. She just knew Damien was planning on using it later on her. She grabbed it and then did a glance over the rocking room. Nausea rolled into her stomach at the waves rocking the ship but when she saw the curtain hanging over the big bay window, she limped over to them and lit them on fire with the torch. She then backed away from the quickly rising flames and burned the papers on the desk.

She had underestimated how quickly the fire would spread and the flames were pushing her from the small room. Grabbing the gun from her waistband, she sent a few shots into the laptop and hoped that if the bullets didn’t destroy it, the fire would.

As she limped down the hallway, her vision blurred more. She was losing more blood from the gunshot wound to her thigh and her fever was at an all-time high. The propane torch was left on and she was leaving a trail of flames in her wake, hoping to burn the ship right out of existence.

Sara then found the door to the outside around the corner and rushed to it as quickly as she could, the smoke from the burning ship pressing on her lungs. The icy blast of the rain hit her in the face when she flung the door open and relief flooded through her when she saw that they were still docked. She half slid, half ran down the stairs until she noticed two shapes in the dark at the end of the ramp. Ducking into an open door, she held her breath hoping that they didn’t see her. It had to be Damien and Merlyn returning after seeing the flames from the ship.

The ship she was on was old, very old. It had a lot of wood built into it and it was taking the flames in hungrily. The ceiling above her was getting hot and she could see the smoke starting to crawl through. She had to get out soon or the whole thing would fall on top of her. The only options she had though was to take her chance in the room while waiting out her tormentors or going out into the cold night face them.

The dizziness that made her sink to her knees answered for her so she waited them out for another few minutes. When the room got too hot, she grabbed onto the door frame and pulled herself up. Peeking around the corner, she saw no one so she made her escape. The entire ship was now ablaze and the wind had sent flames onto the oily dock, causing it to start to erupt with flames as well. The metal bridge from the ship to land was iced over though from the freezing rain but she made it across with no problems, the flames had made it slippery from the melt. It was only when she made it a few feet down fiery the dock that she was sent sprawling as a bullet ripped into her back.

The breath was knocked out of her as it hit her. She was able to crawl a few feet down the dock before she felt a boot press into her back right over the wound.

“Please tell me Miss Lance that you took some of those documents with you because if you didn’t…”

Darhk didn’t bother finishing his sentence. She had to know that this was the end with how angry he was right now. He brought out the final vial from his pocket as he glared at the soaking wet blonde below him.

“Some assassin you are,” he mumbled as he infused the serum into her bloodstream yet again. Before he could do anything else, he heard a commotion a couple hundred yards from the dock.

Someone was firing a laser gun and when Malcolm ran up behind him, he confirmed that it was the Legends.

Darhk was generally disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to see what this level of Red Death would do but he needed to find cover from the attack as well as from the flames all around him.

After the weight of the boot disappeared from her back, Sara sucked in the air to her lungs and instantly regretted it. Each breath she took sent pain wracking through her too damaged body. She just couldn’t take it anymore and the heat from the flames was almost too much to bear.

Before the drug truly kicked in, she dragged her body to the edge of the dock and let gravity carry her over the edge into the freezing water below. The shock was welcoming, and she hoped the rising fever would go down and keep her from suffering brain damage, if she lived that is. The final straw was the new gunshot wound that had bitten through her back and punctured her lung.

Sara had no idea that her team had come for her. She had been and was in so much pain that the world disappeared around her. The intensity of the final level of the drug consumed her as the waves carried her away from the burning ship and towards the shore, as if apologizing for all that it had done to her in her life. The water warmed around her as blood seeped from her wounds and with it went her grip on the world.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Half an hour before the final Red Death serum was injected and back on the time ship, everyone had become restless. The Legends were all on edge and had been bickering between each other for the pettiest of reasons. No one wanted to leave the control room in case Gideon found something. The AI was repeatedly scanning for any anomalies in the timeline that could give them a clue. The med bay was already prepped for when they found Sara but something Gideon said was the reason they were all so on edge.

Based on the video combined with the effects of the Red Death on Snart, Gideon advised them that if any more damage was done to Sara, it could result in a longer healing time. Gideon wouldn’t be able to heal her all at once since it could fatally shock Sara’s system. They would have to watch her suffer for days or even weeks before she was somewhat back to normal. The Red Death would be like withdrawal also, so the first few days would be extremely rough.

Leonard Snart already had the shivers, his body was craving another dose of the drug but his effects were bearable since he only sampled a mild amount of it. He was extra cranky too but the team was used to the mood swings.

“Hey Snart, how ya’ feeling buddy?” Ray asked with sincerity. He admired the way that Snart took it upon himself to see what the drug did.

“I’m fine, Raymond.” His tone was flat and emotionless. He was extremely upset with the whole situation and really wanted to freeze someone, but he could hear Sara in his ear. “ _Stay cool Snart, I need you to focus, don’t let your anger take over.”_

Ray was surprised with how cool Snart was being. The past few hours had been rough for him after collapsing from the drug, but he was oddly reining in his anger. If he had to guess, he was staying strong for a certain little Canary.

“Captain, I have located an anomaly in the timeline. It seems that a ship that was due to be retired in five year’s time has just erupted into flames.” At Gideon’s message, everyone snapped to attention and began preparing as the location came in. “Great Northern Docks, just a ten minutes flight from here,” Gideon finished.

After what felt like hours, they landed and saw the flaming ship that was docked a few hundred yards away. As soon as they opened the ramp, they were fired upon by what they figured to be the Legions goons.

Jax and Stein clapped hands together and Firestorm charged the way forward. Ray and his Atom suit followed while Mick, Amaya, Rip, and Snart cleared a path on foot towards the ship. There were more men than they had anticipated and it was taking longer than they liked to gain any ground.

By the time Snart and Rip reached fiery dock, Amaya and Mick had fallen behind and were busy with a group of guys with machine guns. Over the comms’, Ray alerted the team that Darhk and Merlyn were nowhere to be found. “Should I keep looking?” he asked.

“No,” Rip answered as he watched the fire consume dock to the ship. “We need you here, Sara must still be on the ship, find her Ray.”

Rip could feel the panic coming from Snart in waves. “We will find her Mr. Snart, we just need to get across this dock to help search before the whole ship goes down.”

Snart reigned in his fear for Sara and reached for his cold gun. Just as he was about to pull the trigger to freeze the wall of flames before them, Firestorm came across the comms.

“We need some backup over here!” They turned to see Amaya and Mick taking shelter from a barrage of bullets behind a pile of snowy tires.

“Go Snart,” Rip said as he pushed him closer to the flames, “I’ve got them.” With that, Rip ran back into the firefight and left Snart alone on the dock. The heat from the flames had grown more intense so he fired his cold gun and cleared himself a path. A little over halfway across, he saw a dark liquid pooled near the edge. Fear washed over him yet again as he recognized that sickly color, the same color that coated the floors back at the warehouse.

Then he started to think; how could a fire have started that wasn’t even supposed to happen in the first place? Sara had to be behind it somehow, and if this was her blood, then she wasn’t on the ship anymore. And if she wasn’t on the ship…

He ran closer to the blood and saw that it smeared its way to the edge. _She was in the water._

He scanned the dark surface, looking as fast and as hard as he could. Within seconds, he caught sight of a flash of beautiful blond hair further down the dock back the way he had come. The flames had burned through his path again so he jumped into the water from where he was and swam over to where he last saw the flash of blond. Wherever he looked though, he couldn’t spot her so he dove. He grabbed blindly around him in the frigid waters and then his arm collided with soft flesh. Grabbing at it, he pulled and found that it was an arm. He swam back towards the surface and broke through, pulling weight behind him. When he was able to see more clearly, he saw that it was _his_ Sara. He was filled with happiness but as soon as it came, it went again when he saw that she was unconscious and not breathing.

Leonard Snart pulled her closer as he strongly swam to the shore. He dragged her from the water and caught sight at just how badly Darhk had hurt her. He pushed his feeling towards the man back and focused on trying to revive Sara.

“Stay with me woman, who else is going to keep me out of trouble?” he yelled at her between breaths of CPR. The chest compressions scared him, she had so many injuries that he was terrified of hurting her more. Each pump he did made him cringe but he didn’t let up until he heard the beautiful sound of her coughing up seawater.

“There you are,” he said soothingly as he turned her to clear her throat. “Oh my god, what did he do to you,” he said in surprise as he saw the bullet wound through her back. Her breathing was ragged so he just knew it had hit a lung.

“Oh, I shot her, among other things,” a dark voice answered behind him. He turned just in time to see Damien Darhk’s fist slam into his temple with inhuman strength. He hit the ground next to Sara and was out like a light.

“You sure you can do this?” Malcolm asked Damien as he watched him bend next to the unconscious man. His hand made contact with Snarts forehead and after a golden light wrapped from Snart’s head up Damien’s arm, it was an exact replica of Leonard Snart who rose to face Malcolm.

“Of course I can Malcolm. I just need to drain someone’s energy a few times to stay in Mr. Snarts form. Ill figure that out later. For now,” he said as he looked down at the real Leonard Snart laying knocked out on the rocky shore, “I need you to deal with him.”

Once Malcolm dragged the real Snart away, Darhk laid next to Sara to make the appearance of him lending his body heat to the shaking and unconscious blonde. He now looked and sounded just like Snart, and now he had to act like it. He gathered Sara into his arms and the frailty of her broken body surprised and pleased him at the same time. _This is going to be fun._


	7. Relief

Darhk waited while in Snart’s form for the rest of the Legends to find them. He would need to blend in so they wouldn’t assume anything. As he sat on the frozen earth with no other than Sara Lance in his arms, he wondered why he didn’t just kill her now. He eventually came to the fact that it would just be more fun to keep the torture going until she gave him what he wanted; the other half of the Spear of Destiny.

“Snart! You found her…Oh my god…” Rip trailed off as he came to a stop before the soaking wet pair and dropped to his knees to better assess the situation. “What did that bastard do to you,” he said in a quiet tone as he ripped off his overcoat to drape around the shivering blonde.

“She was in the water, Rip. I almost lost her when she went under but I got to her just in time. She wasn’t breathing…” he paused in a sob for dramatic effect before continuing, “but I brought her back. She just hasn’t woken up.”

“Well done Mr. Snart, but I don’t think she would want to wake up right now; she looks to be in a great deal of pain.” Rip said trying to comfort Snart.

In reality, Darhk knew that Sara wasn’t shaking just from the cold or her injuries, it was most likely also due to the full dose of Red Death he had given her not too long ago.

“Damn, she’s losing too much blood…” Rip said as blood seeped from the coat covering Sara.

“Snart, buddy,” Darhk heard from the distance. He looked up to see the big guy, Mick he guessed, running towards them with the rest of the team behind.

Their reactions were similar to Rip’s even though Rip’s overcoat was covering her broken body. “I don’t want to risk moving her too much, she’s too badly injured,” he said aloud. “We…we need to stop some of this bleeding.”

Mick swung his heat gun towards Rip. “Will this help?” he asked in a growl. “I saw it on a movie once.”

“Are you mad!” Rip shouted before settling down. “Wait, no, you may be on to something. Get me a piece of metal!” he yelled to no one in particular.

Amaya was the first to find a handheld piece of sheet metal and handed it over to Rip.

“Mick,” he instructed, “hit this with your heat gun, we need to cauterize some of her wounds or she will bleed out in the next few minutes.”

Mick did as he was told. The piece of metal was placed on the ground and he used the flame from his gun to heat it.

Rip then used a cloth in his pocket to pick it up. Before he could move over to Sara though, shots started to go off around them once again. Rip then assumed control over the chaos and sent Ray to get the ship and bring it closer.

As soon as Ray and flew off, another wave of attack hit them. Darhk cursed Malcolm knowing that he was doing this just to piss him off. Nevertheless, he played along as if he was Snart and rolled over Sara to protect her from the bullets flying around them.

“Firestorm, Mick, give us some cover!” Rip shouted as he crouched over Sara. “Amaya, I need you to hold her, she might wake up. Hold her shoulders steady Snart…” Without warning, he lifted the coat and found the stab wound to her stomach and started there. Not even second passed when he pressed the burning metal into her skin did the blonde react.

Her back arched in pain and her eyes shot open, her face contorted in a silent scream as even more pain consumed her. Amaya, who was holding her thrashing legs guided Rip to the bullet wound in her leg. Without hesitating, he pressed the metal back into her skin, forcing her to roll onto her side to try and escape the fury. Rip gasped when he saw the freshest wound, a shot to her back surrounded by bruising. He flipped the metal over to the fresh and now hottest side and wrinkled his nose at the smell of burnt flesh as he regretfully pressed it into her bleeding back. Sara couldn’t take it anymore and instantly passed out again after that. The metal was no longer hot so they had to move her now out of the line of fire while she was out.

“Mick!” Rip yelled as he wrapped her back up in his overcoat to protect her from the cold.

“A little busy over here!” he heard. He turned to see Mick take out two guys that had gotten closer to them.

“Get over here! We need to move her!” he yelled.

Mick wasted no time in dropping what he was doing to help his hurt teammate. Mick, being the strongest of the group nudged Snart away and picked Sara up. They ran a short distance to cover behind a trailered boat as Darhk used Snart’s cold gun to clear a path from their assailants.

The team was only there for a minute before the time ship was above them and shooting at the bad guys. When it landed and the ramp went down, the team hurried aboard and shut the doors behind them. They lifted off again and sped to a safe location while the team hurried Sara to the med bay for Gideon to do her thing.

“Mick, lay her down gently,” Rip ordered while the team all crowded around.

Mick laid her down on the table and Gideon immediately started doing a scan over the coat still draped over her.

“Mick your hurt,” Amaya said as she reached for Mick’s bloodstained shirt.

“Not mine,” he said simply as Amaya removed her hands as the realization hit her. He was the one carrying Sara.

“Sir, the coat must be removed for me to accurately scan miss Lance’s vitals,” the AI said.

Rip carefully pulled it off the unconscious blonde and it took everything in them not to gasp in horror. There were so many deep wounds, so many bruises littering her body.

“Sir, this amount of damage will require someone other than me to assist,” the AI said again. “I can only do so much to keep her from going into a deep shock.”

“My god,” Stein said, no longer able to keep it in. “Give the poor girl some pain medication or something, Gideon.”

As Gideon administered the appropriate relief, Rip started applying pressure to the remaining open wounds as Amaya got the surgery tools ready to assist. Gideon had warned them before that she may not be able to heal her all the way since the stress and sudden change to her body could kill her.

“Sir…” Gideon interrupted again before Rip cut her off. “If this is any more bad news then I don’t want to hear it Gideon!”

The AI then stayed silent before Jax asked her what she was about to say. “What is it Gideon?”

“It appears that there is an enormous amount of Red Death in miss Lance’s system and it is fighting off any pain medication I give her. There is nothing I can do for that but a blood transfusion is necessary to replace the blood loss she has sustained.”

The seriousness of the situation weighed heavy in the room until Rip pulled them all back together. “Right, Ray, I need you to get on an antidote right away.” Rip then sighed, “My blood is the only match for Sara so I’ll do the transfusion. Stein, hook me up while I try and stop some of this bleeding.”

When Darhk heard that Ray was going to be making an antidote, he visible cringed. Amaya noticed and just assumed he was upset at the fact there was nothing they could do for Sara’s pain.

“Mick,” Amaya said as she started back on removing the bullet from Sara’s leg, “help Snart back to his room, he’s soaking wet and needs to warm up before we have another patient in here.”

Darhk didn’t want to leave Sara’s side, but he had no idea where Snart’s room was so he was forced to follow Mick. Once they arrived, Mick lingered in his doorway and stared down at his bloodied shirt from where he was carrying Sara.

“I promise you Snart, we will get the bastard that did this and make him pay for what he’s done.”

When he looked back up to Darhk, the anger in his eyes almost frightened him. There was so much determination in them and the way that he said it…there was something going on between Leonard Snart and Sara Lance. All he could do was nod back to Mick before he left.

As Darhk wandered around the room, he tried to learn everything he could about Snart. If he was going to pull this off, he would need to act as much like him as possible.

Back in the lab, Rip and Amaya worked on trying to stabilize their friend.

“Shouldn’t your blood help her against the Red Death in her system?” Amaya asked as she inserted the needle into Sara’s arm.

“I am afraid not,” the AI answered for Rip. “The drug is working in her nerves, not her blood. The only thing that will keep her alive though is this transfusion since she has lost too much of her own.”

The worry in the room was overwhelming. Rip was forced to sit still as he gave the transfusion and not being able to do anything else killed him. Amaya got back to work on closing her wounds while Gideon worked to stop internal bleeding. Stein was assisting Ray in trying to formulate an antidote while Jax did his best to help everyone at once. He was no good at the medical part of the team, his specialty was machines. Mick never returned to the room but everyone could understand why, he had his own ways of dealing with things.

After what seemed like hours, the team had done all that they could without causing Sara to go deeper into shock. Amaya, with her medical training, was able to remove the bullets and cleaned up most of the wounds. She was advised to just do what she could for now from Gideon, and a future surgery would be required to do a more thorough job to close them. Sara’s vitals had dropped significantly and were dangerously low, forcing the team to call it for now. Gideon had stopped the internal bleeding and reported that Rip’s transfusion was a success. Even after all that though, they could tell Sara was still in a great deal of pain. There was no way for them to know just how much, the Red Death was living up to its name.

Inside of Sara's tortured mind, everything was dark, and the silence was almost deafening as she floated in agony. It felt as if she was being cut by a thousand blades. The fire that she felt was hotter than what she imagined lava felt like. This was nothing compared to what had been pumped into her system the last few days, no, this was a thousand times worse. She simply did not want to exist, she wanted to die right there. She wished her mind would just shut off so she wouldn’t have to feel, but if anything, it was racing. She couldn’t think of anything but the pain. Her friends had left her mind, her family as well. Her dad was gone, and so was Laurel whom she wanted to avenge with every fiber in her body. Lightening was running through her veins, powdered glass was being rubbed into her skin, and blades tore across her body; and she couldn’t do a thing about it. She wanted to scream, to run from the pain, but she couldn’t move. For what felt like years it stayed this way until her body went numb. She thought that she was finally dying, that her body was giving up but this was far from what was going on.

“I think I’ve got something!” Ray shouted from across the room. He pulled the liquid he had been working on into a syringe and ran over to Rip who hadn’t left Sara’s side.

“Wait!” Rip yelled as he blocked the needle from going into the blonde’s arm. “Have you tested it first?”

“There’s no time!” he yelled as he pushed Rip’s arm away and emptied the contents of the syringe into Sara’s arm. “Her fever is too high; her organs are going to start shutting down if they haven’t already.”

The two took a step back, waiting to see if something was going to happen. When nothing did, they sighed in defeat and took a seat next to their friend.

“Why would someone do something like this…” Ray sighed. “It’s just…evil.”

Rip couldn’t say anything. The failure he was feeling was too overwhelming. He reached for the dressing on her leg and pulled it back. The bullet had grazed her femoral artery which had cause it to bleed as bad as it did. It still looked angry but was a lot better that it had looked before.

“A gunshot is something that makes the victim suffer,” a new voice joined in.

Rip and Ray didn’t have to turn around to know that the voice belonged to Leonard Snart.

“Lots of pain but death takes a while,” he finished. “How is she doing?”

Rip sighed before answering Snart’s question. “We’ve done all we can for now. We had to back off, she was close to going deeper into shock.”

Darhk looked down at the pale form below him. He would have grinned if the other two Legends weren’t in the room. Sara’s whole body was tense and rigid, and the pained look in her features gave him so much satisfaction.

“I give you my word Mr. Snart that we will find Darhk and make him pay,” Rip said. “I’ve seen how close you and Miss Lance have become while aboard this ship, you care deeply for her I know.”

Darhk avoided Rip’s gaze in case he noticed something was off.

“Rip I think it’s working!” Ray yelled again.

Darhks gaze shot up then in question.

“I made a serum to counteract the Red Death in Sara’s system. We weren’t sure if it worked but her fever is going down and her heartrate is better!”

Rip laughed in relief and slapped Snart in the back in a celebratory gesture. “Gideon! Administer some pain medication.”

Once Gideon gave her a large dose, everyone in the room held their breath in anticipation. Ray and Rip wanted it to work, and Darhk wanted it to fail, at least for a little while longer.

It took a few minutes but to Rip and Ray’s relief, they saw Sara’s body relax, and for the first time that night she let out a deep breath in relief.


	8. Promises

The past few days had been hard ones for the team. Their captain had been kidnapped, tortured, and nearly killed by Damian Darhk. Each member of the team vowed to avenge their comatose leader, but no one wanted revenge as bad as Leonard Snart.

After Leonard had pulled Sara from the water, he thought that he had his world back. When he saw the crimson colors staining his arms after breathing life back into her, his heart froze in fear.  He then saw the man who had hurt his Canary and was hit over the head, waking up still covered in her blood. Panic flooded his still damp body when he couldn’t find her. Was she okay? Was she even still alive? Jumping to his feet, he surveyed his surroundings and found himself in a barren room. Noticing the large glass pane across the room, he saw a familiar face grinning back at him; Malcolm Merlyn.

“You son of a bitch where is she!” he yelled as he stormed across the space, only to be yanked back by the shackles around his wrists.

“You’re only going to hurt yourself Mr. Snart, I would advise you to just sit tight for now,” the raven-haired man said.

“Where’s Darhk,” Leonard demanded, “I’m going to rip his head from his shoulders after what he did to Sara.”

Merlyn smiled through the glass, “oh he’s busy rubbing elbows with your team at the moment,” he said as he laughed, “those idiots have no clue its Darhk posing at you, its comical, really.”

Horror flooded Leonard’s body, he had to get back to his team to warn them, he had to get back to Sara.

“Is she alive?” he asked while both dreading and yearning for the answer.

Merlyn smiled a crooked smile at him before turning to leave, leaving the unspoken answer hanging between them.

“Merlyn get back here! Tell me, is Sara alive?” The light flicked off in the room leaving him in complete darkness. He had to get out, but how?

Back on the Waverider, only Rip and the false Snart remained at Sara’s side. It had been a few hours since the antidote was given but she still hadn’t woken up. Her vitals were still not where they needed to be and from what they could tell was that the Red Death was eating up most of the antidote, though the horrible drug was losing its effect as well. Darhk had planted himself at Sara’s side, he wanted to be the first to know when she woke up. He had to reign in his emotions though, he so desperately wanted to kill her, but she was his best shot at getting to the Spear. She had also destroyed all the research they had on another shard when she burned down the ship.

He twirled his ring around as he was lost in thought. It was one of the items he brought with him as he boarded the Waverider, that and two vials Red Death, just in case.

“Why do you think Damien Darhk did this?” Darhk asked, wanting to know where Rip’s head was at.

“I would presume for her knowledge on the Spear, Mr. Snart.” Rip shook his head to clear some of the fogginess. He was giving a second transfusion, just to be safe.

So Sara’s team wasn’t as stupid as he thought them to be. Darhk was starting to get shaky, he needed a life force to be able to keep up his form as Snart. “That would be the only thing that makes sense, but I’ve just got a bad feeling. Shouldn’t we check to see if our half of the Spear is still safe?”

Rip looked up at him with tired eyes and gave a half laugh. “There’s no reason to worry.”

“Why not? I want to see it to be sure.” He needed to find the Spear and soon, he could feel his features beginning to waver and he needed to get back to Merlyn.

Rip looked at him in confusion for a moment before answering. “Because Sara is the only one who knows where it is, she hid it either on this ship or in another time. Weren’t you there when she told us?”

Dread filled Darhk for a moment. “I was probably hungover from the night before.” Rip simply nodded before disconnecting himself from Sara and bandaging his arm. He sat back in his chair, prepared to stay a while longer but Darhk needed him to leave before his cover was blown.

“Rip, you’ve been through a lot, go get some rest. I can stay here and look after her.”

Sighing, Rip complied and slowly got up to keep the world from spinning. He looked one last time at Sara, who was sleeping a little more relaxed than hours before, and then headed for his room.

As hard as it was, Darhk remained seated though he wanted to smash everything in the room. This was going to be a lot harder than he thought. Sara was the only one who knew where the Spear was. He had hoped that at least Rip would know and he could go to plan B, but that was out the window. Gideon stirred him from his thoughts though when she alerted him to a spike in Sara’s heartrate.

“Miss Lance’s heartrate has increased, Mr. Snart. I would presume it’s from the Red Death burning through the last of the antidote.”

Feigning worry, he asked the AI if he should be concerned.

“I cannot answer truthfully sir, I have no records to compare this case to. My tests indicate that the drug is wearing off, but the levels keep fluctuating. I simply do not have enough information on how this drug works.”

Quickly coming up with a plan, he rubbed his ring the wrong way which caused it to pop out a small needle. His ring contained a small amount of Red Death and if he kept refilling it, he could use to keep Gideon from seeing him and alerting the team. Since the super computer wasn’t sure exactly how the drug worked, he could use it to his advantage to keep Sara under his control. He could use her life force energy whenever he wanted, and the team would blame the effects on the drug that ‘refused’ to leave her system.

Darhk placed his hand on Sara’s arm and pushed the small needle into it. Once it was empty, it retracted, and he watched from the corner of his eye at the monitor as her heartrate increased even more. As soon as he felt comfortable that Gideon was getting the readings, his grip tightened, and he summoned her energy to him. It was such a rush and made it hard to sit still as he felt her life force filling him. It was unlike anything he had ever felt before from his victims, she was so different and so powerful that he wanted to take it all. Feigning concern as he watched her pale even more and start to convulse, he called for Gideon to call the team; it’s what the real Snart would have done. It took everything he had to pull his hand away from her to keep from taking it all; the power was so great that he could only assume it was because of her connection to the Lazarus Pit.

As Sara was starting to seize, Darhk snapped out of it and caught her before she fell off the chair. He lowered her to the ground just as the rest of the Legends rushed in. Rip entered last, presumably just having woken up.

“Gideon!” Rip demanded as he pushed his way to Darhk’s side as he held her now still form. “What’s going on?”

Gideon answered as Rip helped Darhk get her back in the chair. “It seems as if the Red Death drug in her system spiked, causing miss Lance to decline further. I am having trouble getting her stable, her entire body seems to have been sucked lifeless from this unforeseen episode.”

Amaya rushed to the other side and got to work stabilizing her friend. Darhk used this distraction to his advantage and retreated from the room. He needed to slip away and report back to Malcolm, their timeline had changed. Mick watched him leave the lab and followed his ‘friend’ to the doors of the cargo bay.

“Where do you think you are going?” Mick growled as he caught up to him and pushed him into the wall. “Sara needs you, you selfish bastard.”

“Get your hands off me Mick,” Darhk said, knowing where this was going but playing along anyways.

“No, not until you promise me that you will turn around and not leave this ship. I know where you are going, you want revenge on Darhk. How do you think Sara will feel when she wakes up and sees that you aren’t there, what if you get yourself killed?”

“And what if Darhk gets away?” he spat back. “What if this is our only chance to get a lead on where he is going? You saw what he did to Sara, you saw how bad he hurt her. Let me go Mick, let me go before he gets a chance to finish what he started.”

Mick had him pinned to the wall for a few seconds more before dropping him and turning to leave. “She will never forgive you if you get yourself killed.”

After Mick left, Darhk continued on his way in a much better mood than before.

Back in the lab, Stein and Ray worked on trying to figure out what happened to cause the drug to spike like it had. Rip helped Amaya stabilize Sara again and they gave her more of the antidote. At least it would work for a little while before wearing off. Jax fine-tuned the medical equipment and tried to figure out if there was a malfunction with the levels but he found nothing to be wrong. After a few hours they determined that it just had to be the drug and its unknown properties. It was now extremely late in the night so Rip sent everyone but Amaya back to their room for the night.

“Who would develop such an evil drug like this?” Amaya asked to no one in particular after a while.

Rip had no answers for her as he swayed on his feet.

“Easy, Rip,” Amaya said as she grabbed onto his arm. “You need to go and rest, you’ve lost a lot of blood as well.”

Rip smiled at her as he regained his balance. “The last time I tried that was about a few hours ago, and then this…” he nodded towards Sara.

“Go, Rip, I’ll stay and clean Sara up.” They both looked to Sara and noticed that she was still in the same clothes they found her in.

After Rip left, Amaya started by cleaning up Sara’s face, being mindful of the cuts as she hummed to herself.

“Miss Jiwe, I fear that the recent turn of events has fought off the sedation and pain medication I’ve been giving miss Lance. There is nothing I can do for her now except monitor her condition.

“Thank you, Gideon,” Amaya said in sadness as she continued her work more carefully.

After making her way down, she couldn’t help but cringe when she removed the bandages. The bruising on her ribs had deepened and her wound from the spear looked angry. It was through and through and had to be extremely sensitive, she was almost afraid to touch it, but she had to keep going. All her wounds had to be checked and cleaned to avoid infection.

As soon as she pressed the cloth over the shoulder wound, Sara’s fists curled into a ball; she was feeling it.

“Oh Sara I’m so sorry, but I have to keep going,” she whispered soothingly in case she could hear her. She continued to douse the wound with the medicine covered cloth, trying to be as sensitive as she could. Once she had that one bandaged and done, she moved on to the spear wound. She barely made contact with it when Sara’s body snapped over tightly in pain.

“No, no, no Sara lay back down!” she said while trying to push her struggling her friend back. Once she realized that it would hurt even more to straighten back out suddenly, she stopped and instead tried to calm her down.

Sara was trying to push Amaya back while at the same time clinging weakly to her. “Sara it’s me, Amaya,” she pleaded while trying to get in Sara’s line of sight. “Sara listen!” she yelled as she finally grabbed ahold of Sara’s wrists and got in front of her. Once Sara’s bright blue eyes made contact with hers, she felt her relax. “It’s okay,” she soothed, “you’re back on the Waverider but you were hurt pretty bad, can you understand me?”

Amaya watched as the wildness left her features as the familiar surroundings set in. “Amaya…”

“Yea, it’s me, I’m so sorry this happened to you.” Amaya let go of her wrists and scooted over to her side to keep her from moving, and also to support her. She looked like if she let go, Sara would end up falling, she looked so weak and drained of life.

“They gave me something, it burns,” Sara whispered weakly while she felt the fire in her body. Her breath was shallow, and the throbbing pain scorched every cell of her body

“I know, Red Death. Ray came up with an antidote, but it doesn’t last long. And it fights off everything we give you to make you more comfortable. How are you feeling, what can I do?”          

Sara involuntarily twitched and whimpered in pain. Amaya felt her body tense up while trying to hold back her pain and remain strong.

“Sara don’t, your hurt and have every right to express it. Stop trying to act tough.”

“Sorry, reflex,” she said as her eyes snapped shut in pain. Her struggle had left her sitting while doubled over in pain, head resting on her least injured leg.

“Look, Sara, you need to lie back down but before you do that I need to look at your back okay? And I’m not going to lie, it may hurt a bit.”

“Just do it Amaya,” she choked out while gripping Amaya’s arm, the pain in her chest was rising and she felt close to passing out again.

“You took a bullet to your back, it pierced your lung so try not to speak or its going to hurt more,” Amaya warned as she quickened her pace. Sara’s shaking didn’t help but when she was confident in her work, she cleaned up the area and helped Sara change clothes as decently as she could.

“Alright blondie, now we got to lay you back down, slowly.” She helped Sara uncurl her body until she was laying back down.

“I can’t. Amaya…hurts…” Sara warned as soon as she was lying flat again. The white-hot pain shooting through her back was too much, even with the adjustments made to the chair for her injuries.

Her back was too sensitive, so Amaya turned her to her right side. To avoid a deep cut to the leg underneath, Sara was forced to bend it while keeping her other leg straight. Amaya instructed her not to move it after she got the bullet wound rebandaged due to the surgery on the artery. When they were all done, Sara and Amaya both let out a sigh of relief.

“Thanks Amaya, it’s good to be back.” Sara breathed out weakly. Amaya could tell she was close to passing out again, she couldn’t believe she was even awake at all.

Amaya offered her a smile before grabbing the bloodied clothes from the floor to throw away. “It’s no problem, really. I know you would to the same…” she trailed off when a black object fell from the wad of clothes in her hands.

Sara noticed it as soon as it fell and tried reaching for it even though there was no way she could reach it. “Ahhhh, damn!” she hissed as the movement wrenched her injured shoulder. “Give it here Amaya, that’s an order.”

Amaya looked at her disbelievingly. “An order? Sara what is this?”

Sara tried grabbing it from her hands, but Amaya pulled it back. “Tell me or you aren’t getting this back until you can physically take it from me.”

Sara thought about it for a second before giving in. “I pulled it from Darhks computer on that ship. It had…information on it.”

“Information on what?” she asked though she guessed the answer.

“…The Spear. I don’t want anyone knowing I have it, just in case Darhk somehow finds out. Amaya you have to hide it for me, don’t tell anyone, not even Rip.”

“Sara,” Amaya began softly, “you don’t have to do any of this alone…”

“I know,” Sara said as she cut her off. “please, hide it and when I’m out of this damned lab ill figure out where to go from there.”

Amaya wanted to cry, she had never heard Sara so desperate. She could see her fading, her blue eyes dulled in pain. “I’ll keep it safe for you, but you have to promise me not to do this alone.”

Sara hesitated a moment before promising, but that promise was cut short by a coughing fit. It wracked her body and robbed her of breath, igniting all of her injuries at once with the sharp jerks.

Amaya rushed to her side at once and looped the oxygen line under her nose before watching the pain pull her back into unconsciousness.

“Gideon, is she okay?”

“Her stress levels are elevated due to the pain of her coughing fit. Her punctured lung appears to be alright, though weak. Thank goodness she is unconscious now, hopefully she will be able to sleep through most of the pain, there isn’t much I can do for her now.”

Amaya sighed in frustration, she hated this for her friend. She gripped the flash drive in anger before tucking it into her pocket and cleaning up. Not wanting to leave Sara alone, she pulled the chair from the corner and tried to get some rest. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.

 


End file.
